Pope Francis departs Mexico, reminds people of their
'Mother of Guadalupe'
(Vatican Radio) Pope
Francis on Wednesday evening departed from Ciudad Juarez at the end of his
Apostolic Journey to Mexico.
The Holy Father finished his
visit much as he began: with a prayer to the Virgin of Guadalupe for the
Mexican people. "May Mary, Mother of Guadalupe, continue to walk on your
lands, helping you to be missionaries and witnesses of mercy and reconciliation."
Veronica Scarisbrick was in Mexico with Pope Francis and sent us
this report on the conclusion of the Pope's visit:
The people of Mexico are
certainly not used to wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Or not anyway when
it comes to Pope Francis. And as he came to their nation as ‘a messenger of
peace’ they opened up their hearts and lifted up their faces towards him.
And he was grateful, struck
by their love for him, by their joy, by their constant request that he bless
them, expressing in private his wonder at their disinterested affection.
In turn he was giving with
the Mexican people. In a special way with those on the margins of society.
In this land of contrasts
where religiosity and popular piety run deep and where helpless violence reigns
he had come for almost a week to walk ‘through the peripheries with them’, the
people of Mexico.
And as he departed he said:
“Thank you for having opened the doors of your lives to me, the doors of your
nation”.
And then Francis quoted from
a poem by Nobel laureate Octavio Paz by the title of ‘Brotherhood’. One where
this Mexican poet speaks of the vastness of the night, of how if we look up to
the skies: the stars hold a written message, one we too are part of. One which
is spelt out for us”.
And Francis commented: ‘I
dare to suggest that the one who spells out this message for us and indicates a
path for us to follow is the mysterious but real presence of God, in the real
flesh of all people especially the poorest and most needy” .
Throughout his six days in
Mexico Pope Francis has, as a man of God, during this Year of Mercy, visited
places where most people fear to tread. From the sprawling lawless ‘barrio
bravo’ of Ecatepec where desperate people alleviate their pain by
painting colour on to their miserable homes, to Mexico City’s hospital
for gravely sick children, to Chiapas were indigenous people have suffered
abuse and to whom he asked forgiveness for the Church’s wrongs of the past, to
chillingly drug ridden Michoacán where young people are caught in a web of
despair, to Ciudad Juarez where he met with the inmates of a high security
prison and with immigrants with their dashed dreams.
But he had a message for the
men and women of God in this nation as well. To them he expressed the wish that:
“Mexican people might find, reflected in their faces, the Lord, the presence of
God”. And on another occasion invited them not to be tempted by resignation in
the face of ‘paralyzing injustice”.
And upon his departure Pope
Francis said to the people of Mexico, nights here can seem vast and
filled with great darkness. Despite this, he added, in many of your faces
I have encountered the presence of God.
God who carries on walking in
this land, guiding you, sustaining you in hope. Many of you with your
daily efforts make it possible for Mexican society not to be shrouded in
darkness. You are tomorrow’s prophets; you are the sign of a new dawn.
Pope Francis’ visit here has
surely provided Mexicans with a cone of light from the skies in the midst of a sea
of darkness.
But like his first words here in Mexico, his last were dedicated to
the Mother of the nation, ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’.
Already upon his arrival in
Mexico Pope Francis had quoted ‘Octavio Paz’ who once described Guadalupe, the
spiritual heart of the nation, as a place of rest where people orphaned and
disinherited, might seek a place of refuge, a home.
And as Pope Francis bade
farewell to Mexico he said: ”May Mary, Mother of Guadalupe, continue to walk on
your lands, helping you to be missionaries and witnesses of mercy and
reconciliation “.
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